SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer Quality of play

We are only about three weeks into the season and there are three teams ranked in the Top 15 of 4A that have losing records.

Is there more "parity" this year? One person indicated earlier, in defense of the referees, that the quality of the officiating is not the only thing that is down this year.

Parity is the easiest explanation, but why is a better question. One is finding more quality coaches that begat quality coaches. Smaller sized (AAA & AA) schools are getting kids involved and teaching the basic technique and tactics that they had been lacking. Parity is found not only in the 4A top 15, but between classes as well.

The whole rankings issue and "A" classification are senseless in girls high school soccer. Just look at the rankings in AA/A! One thing worth noting is that many girls teams are strong in cycles due to who plays—such as how many club players are involved and how many high-level (premier) club players are involved. When my daughter's high school team scrimmaged Eastside, for example, we know virtually all of them from some aspect of club play. Then we play a region team without a single player having club experience. That is the difference between losing 4-0 or winning 10-0—not the ranking or the classification (We defeated a AAAA team 7-1, again because of a disparity of soccer experience, not school size). A good ol' EPL league set up would suit girls soccer better with the possibility of moving up or being rlegated after each season.

And I see I put "EPL league" so I award myself the Redundancy Award for today—Forgive my idiocy (though it has been identified here earlier)—

Promotion/relegation would be great but obviously it is not practical. Due to travel costs and regional scheduling, the AD's would never go for it.

Are there many teams chock full of premier players on their roster or is the talent scattered about? Fort Mill had two: Jen Ficklen (Charlotte Soccer Club) - early graduation to Clemson; and Amanda Grayson (Charlotte Soccer Club) - transfer to Charlotte Country Day....but they are now both gone.

Hurst what team do u support in 4a if any?

Fort Mill.

what 4a teams do u believe should not be in the top 15.

It would be very interesting to break down the levels of club players at schools. My GUESS is that the premier players are fairly diluted. But teams with a large number of club players cannot be beaten by a team with one or two (or no) club players. No matter how hard the coach and school try (of course, in general terms—I am sure one or two times this is untrue). I would guess that the percentages of challenge, classic, and premier within and among teams does not matter nearly as much as how many club players a team can field v. how many an opponent fields. My daughter's AA team has one premier and 3 challenge/classic players. After that, it is rec and no experience. We were moderately competitive with larger schools with more club players in pre-season, but any team with 7 or more club players v. our 4 are nearly impossible to beat. The value in club players is how many on the field understand the game (and have years of experience playing it at a high level), along with the level of skill. Those two things are invaluabel in high school soccer.